Last York Steak House is for sale on Columbus’ West Side

The nation’s last York Steak House, still serving up T-bones, burgers and baked fish almondine on the West Side of Columbus as restaurants around it have come and gone, is up for sale.

After 44 years working for York and 35 years as its owner, Jay Bettin said he’s ready to retire and wants to sell the business at 4220 W. Broad St. The restaurant “continues to have great success,” he said, and he promised it will continue to operate as normal until a new owner is on board.

Bettin posted those comments on Facebook about the restaurant, which was founded 38 years after the first York Steak House opened in 1966 on Morse Road. The restaurant boomed as it began opening new locations inside shopping malls, and founders Berndt Gros and Eddie Grayson sold to General Mills in 1976.

According to Bettin, there were 180 York Steak House restaurants at the chain’s peak. Others say there were nearly 200 in 27 states from Maine to Texas. In 1984, the restaurant had locations in Eastland Mall, Northland Mall, on South Hamilton Road near I-70 and the still-standing West Broad Street outpost across from Westland

Mall.

“York Steak House is an institution on the West Side,” said Jennie Keplar, a member of the city’s Greater Hilltop Area Commission. “Most longtime Hilltoppers have at least one story they tell about it. It’s where my mom and dad had their first date in 1973. I remember being eager to go to York when I was a kid because they gave away Strawberryshortcake figurines with kids’ meals.”

The malls have all since shut down, and Northland and Westland have been torn down. Gone, too, are General Motors and Westinghouse factories whose workers used to frequent the West-side restaurant. Keplar said York Steak House still has a “deeply personal, emotional place” in the lives of many, though.

On his website, Bettin says, the last York Steak House “strives to maintain the same quality and atmosphere, where loyal guests continue to have that past nostalgic experience with a fresh, present-day appeal.”

Greg Hrabcak, who is handling the listing with Hanna Commercial Real Estate, said “When you’re walking into it, you’re walking into the past.”

Hrabcak said the restaurant business is for sale, not the leased land on which it sits. rvitale@dispatch.com Instagram: @dispatchdining